Guns And Roses
by diamondlilyflower
Summary: Abby is in deep trouble and none of the team know how to handle the situation. With a missing forensic scientist and everyone else on edge, how will they all find her, before it's too late? Will Abby have the strength to wait for them, or will she just have to get through it alone?
1. Chapter 1

**AU: So I own nothing of NCIS or its characters, but isn't that kind of obvious?**

Abby bounced around her lab, looking for her ear ring. She'd been going hay wire all morning, she lost her ear ring, and so hadn't had her usual dose of booming loud music to wake her up and Gibbs hadn't brought her the morning cup of Caf-pow yet. Considering he didn't usually bring it till she'd been at work about an hour and a half and she'd only been at work twenty minutes meant that she wasn't very surprised.

It didn't take her much longer to find her small skull ear ring, hidden at the foot of her mass-spec. She put it back in and then she heard footsteps behind her, she whipped round, causing her ponytails to whack her in the face, she all of a sudden wished she had stayed underneath the mass-spec when her eyes came to rest on exactly who had disturbed her.

She kept her wits about her and sat herself down on the floor, leaning on the back wall, just round the corner from the doors to her lab. She sat in silence, unable to make her choice whether she wanted Gibbs to come in with her daily dose of Caf-pow any more.

"Abby? Abby you in here?" Ziva called as she came into the seemingly empty lab, running her fingers through her long black hair, before using her elastic band to whip it to the side in a quick, loose plait. "Abby?"

"Here Ziva!" The eccentric Goth shouted back as she came round the corner, her pigtails swinging back and forth on either side of her head. She was smiling but it didn't seem to reach up to her eyes like it usually did. "You here for the DNA results?" She asked a bit flatly

"What else would I be here for?" Ziva chuckled

"Maybe I'm just too much fun for my own good?" There it was, a little spark of the Abby eccentric cheer.

"There's that too. Anyway, did the blood test positive for anything?"

"Yeah, it had high levels of-"

Ziva's phone buzzed, interrupting Abby mid-sentence. Ziva checked her phone before she looked back up at Abby apologetically. "Sorry, Abby I really need to hurry before Tony has a fit and bashes his head on his desk, I need to see that." Both the girls chuckled at the image of Tony hitting his head against his desk.

"It's all in the file." Abby said back as she handed the brown file over, it was unusual for Abby not to fill her in on everything that was in the file in the space of thirty seconds while Ziva skim read it, no, she was just standing silently handing the file over

"Thanks Abbs." She said as she turned and went to the door.

"Ziva?" Ziva stopped in her tracks at the thinly veiled worry evident in Abby's voice.

"Yeah?"

"Tell Gibbs that I've already got my coffee this morning, so he doesn't need to visit." Not wanting Gibbs to bring down Caf-pow? Even if she'd already had a cup Abby always could go for more of the high caffeine drink.

Ziva nodded uncertainly, her eyes portraying her confusion.

"Please Ziva, just go." Abby almost begged.

"You alright this morning?"

"Yeah, yeah, just need some loud music on for a while, calm me down." Abby smiled, but Ziva didn't fully believe her, but then she realized that she wouldn't exactly get away with restraining everybody's favorite lab geek in her own lab and forcing her to cheer up.

"Don't let me stop you." Ziva chuckled and left the lab, hoping that that was really the only problem.

Abby sighed in a complete mixture of relief and frustration. Ziva hadn't understood what she was trying to tell her. She took a few steadying breaths whilst she stood in silence and when she didn't hear any movement, she made her decision and ran for the door.

She grabbed the door handle and turned it, but then she felt the cold metal press against the back of her lab coat. "Not so fast Abby,"

**AU: So what do you think? Send me in reviews to let me know what you think should happen next. xxx**


	2. Chapter 2

"What do you want? Why are you in my lab?"

"I don't think you're the one to be asking the questions right now Abby."

"At least tell me what you want." She sighed.

"Payback." He stopped speaking for a few moments. "Your team's going to be down here soon aren't they?"

Abby didn't know what to do, so she did nothing, she just stood there, not giving him any acknowledgement.

"I'll take that as a yes. Is there a way out of this lab? A way that doesn't involve going through the bullpen where your whole team is?"

She stayed silent.

He pulled the gun out again, hit her in the head, causing a wash of dizziness to come over her and a few blood droplets to land on the floor and then he pressed the gun against her temple. "Let's try this again. Is there another way out of here?"

She nodded as a few traitor tears ran down her cheeks, she was suddenly grateful that she'd forgotten to put mascara on and she hadn't had time to put on her black lipstick yet, so she had no makeup that her tears could smear.

"There's an, an emergency fire escape shaft in my office." She stuttered.

"And where does it lead?"

"The, the road on the other side of the wall."

The gunman nodded and maneuvered her so that the gun was at the base of her spine. "You go first." He ordered.

She nodded slightly and blinked away her tear clouded eyes. She took a deep breath to steady herself, dropping her hands to her sides and trying to avoid his attention. Her steps were small, but she quickly managed to walk into her office and pull back the emergency shaft.

She knew that there was no chance of her overpowering him, as he was armed with a gun, while they were in her office. She willingly crouched down and crawled through the shaft until she came to the grate at the other side, usually it was on, but today it was off. Mentally she made a list of all the reasons it could be off.

When her head was out in the light open air she didn't even have time to look up before someone grabbed her shoulders and pulled her roughly up onto her feet. There was a second man with a gun. _Oh great._

"Hey Gibbs, is Abby alright?" Ziva asked when she arrived back up at her desk.

"You think something's up with her?" Gibbs said back.

Ziva nodded. "She was really quiet, a bit like a normal person would be if they were a forensic scientist, not like herself at all. Her hand was shaking like crazy and she told me to tell you to not bring her the caf-pow." She explained quickly.

"Abby? Tell you to tell Gibbs not to bring her Caf-pow?" Tim asked dubiously.

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Ziva agreed.

They spent about ten minutes mulling over it, waiting for them to get an excuse to go down to the lab to check on her without looking like they were checking on her. McGee suddenly had an idea and felt all the colour drain from his face involuntarily.

"What is it McGeek?" Tony asked.

"Gibbs, Abby could sign right? That's how the L.A team managed to find her with the phantom." Gibbs nodded before Tim continued. "Could her hand shaking like that, maybe be sign language? There could have been someone else in the lab…"

Tim didn't finish his sentence. He was already charging out of the bullpen and down towards the lab. He ran the quickest way he could think of, straight past Ducky and Palmer in the morgue. Ducky stuck his head out of the doors just after Tim had run past, only to be faced with Ziva, Tony and Gibbs all running his way. "What's going on?" He asked them.

"Abby," All three of them chorused as they ran straight past him.

"Palmer, stay in the morgue. I'm going to see what all of the fuss is about." Ducky said as he left.

Tim didn't hesitate as he ran through the lab doors, hoping to God that he had been wrong and that Abby and her swinging ponytails would be sitting in her swivel chair, waiting for something to examine.

But Tim was never that far wrong. He went in and the lab was empty, no sign or sound of Abby at all. He went further into the lab and out of the doorway and had to swallow the vomit that was promptly rising in his throat.

There was a puddle of blood droplets on the floor and no sign of Abby. He heard Ziva and the others arrive in the lab behind him, but he didn't react if they said anything, almost as though he was deaf. The lab was too quiet, too empty without Abby in it.

They needed her back, they needed the heart of their team back.

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	3. Chapter 3

Abby woke up in a van. She didn't even remember getting knocked out, or even getting into the van. She could hear a buzzing, even with her eyes closed she knew that they hadn't thought to take the phone off of her. Rookie mistake, leaving a tech genius with a phone. She pulled it out of her lab coat pocket, making sure she hung up. She checked the caller I.D. Ducky.

She made her decision quickly. She typed out the message: _In trouble. Help needed._

After that she put her phone back in her pocket. She could feel the van moving beneath her, they could have been on the road for hours for all she knew. There was no way she could help the team, she had no idea who the men with guns were or where they were going or what their plan was, or, well, anything.

Ducky's first thought was to try Abby's cell. He was standing in the back of her lab, with the rest of the team running around dusting for prints and other things like that. He called, but there was no answer. He waited a few minutes to call again. This time it didn't ring nearly as long, it sounded almost like she'd hung up on him.

Less than five seconds later he got the text message from her and he had to fight to keep his hand steady enough to not drop the phone altogether. He cleared his throat and the whole team abruptly turned round to look at him.

"I just received a text message from Abby." He said quietly.

Everyone stared at him like he was crazy. Dinozzo moved first. He took the phone out of Ducky's outstretched hand and stared at the message, smiling from joy. Hundred percent it was Abby. He decided to text back.

_Dinozzo here. Any idea where you are?_

The reply came less than two seconds later

_Back of van. Out of it a little. No idea where I am or where we're going._

_Any idea who they are or what they want?_

_No_

_How many of them are there?_

_Two, armed with guns. Notice my blood on the floor?_

Tony grimaced. It was her blood, not the kidnappers. _When did they get in your lab?_

_Dunno. Looking for my earring by mass-spec. Found it and then there he was. Threatened me, the team. Ziva interrupted, I got her out as quick as I could and told her to not let Gibbs bring me Caf-pow. Which I'm now craving…_

_Alright Abby. Stay calm. Whenever you can let us know anything about what's going on. Be careful._

The gap before her message was much longer this time.

_I'm kind of in a bit of a situation already Dinozzo._

"How is she Dinozzo?" Ziva asked.

"Out of it. I think they might have pistol whipped her head and that's how the blood got there." He told her.

"Has she got any idea who they are? What they want? Where they're going?" Tim asked.

"Everybody stop with the questions! She doesn't know anything and that means I don't know anything!" Dinozzo shouted.

Everyone went quiet. Everyone was a little shocked at Dinozzo's out burst, but they all had known it was coming, they also all knew the familial bond that he shared with Abbs.

The entire team stood, dumbfounded. With a lack of anything to do. Ducky and Palmer were already processing Abby's lab and anything they found there would have to be sent to an entirely different lab to be processed. The crime scene, was the lab itself so that made it impossible for them to use any of the multitude of machines and computers to speed up the process.

How things had gone so wrong in the space of an hour and a half at work on a normal morning, nobody knew.

Abby woke up again just as they were about to take her out of the van. This was her chance. Possibly her only chance of escaping them before something bad happened, even though she was already in a situation that would count as something bad happening, kind of like when-

She was cut off from her rambled thoughts when she heard the gunmen exit the van. She tensed, readying herself to launch out of the van and run as far as she could. She didn't care that both of them were huge guys, both armed with guns and both were kidnappers and kidnapping often escalated into torture and murder…

The door opened, but only a crack, not enough for her to get enough force to have a tiny chance of escape. It wasn't too much later that she saw the gun poking through the gap. She tried to move out of the shot, but there was nowhere to go that was clear. They pulled the trigger. She felt the throbbing pain in her chest. She fell away into the darkness.

**Review Please!**


	4. Chapter 4

The two men stood over their unconscious captive. They had chained her up in shackles against the wall, her wrists above her head so she was stuck in a perpetual almost hanging sensation, just her feet could rest half on the floor. Her head was hanging down, her black ponytails low and scruffy.

"When do we start boss?" the shorter of the pair asked.

"We let her rest for now. As soon as she wakes up let me know, then the fun really begins." The taller one smirked. "Check her. She has a phone on her." He said as he left.

Short was now alone with Abby. He checked her over and he did indeed find a phone in her pocket. She must have been hoping that it would be tracked and she would be rescued. Nobody in the world ever had that such luck.

He placed the phone on the ground a little way away from her and he stepped on it, hearing the satisfying crunch of metal as he did. He smirked and then just for good measure he jumped on the smashed metal a few times, much like a toddler would if they were having a tantrum.

When boss did come back he would have to remind him to point out the mangled metal that once resembled a black phone with a bat on it.

Abby woke up not too much later. She groaned in a mixture of pain and confusion, her eyes fluttered open and she was alone. She pulled at her wrists, but they wouldn't budge and it was only then that she realized she was chained up against a wall. A moment later she spotted the crushed pieces of metal and it took her a few seconds to realize it was her phone. She could even tell that the tracker chip was destroyed.

"What do you want from me?" She shouted.

Almost in response to her question the two men came back in. One is giant size, the other is maybe five six. She found herself mentally making a list of each of the men's main features, height, weight, hair and eye colour, she was compartmentalizing it so much that it wasn't until the tall one, the leader, boss, was directly in front of her, brandishing in his hand a smooth, black hilt with an unrecognizable insignia on it and attached to it was a very long, very sharp, eerily beautiful, blade.

"What do you want from me?" She repeated, quieter this time.

"Simple. We want revenge on the NCIS team, you were just the easiest to reach." Boss told her with an evil smile on his face.

"Why do people always want revenge on our team?" She said more to herself than anyone else. "When Gibbs finds you he'll, he'll tear you limb from limb!" The man laughed but she kept going. "And when Tony sees Gibbs has strewn your body parts across the floor he'll set them on fire and then Ziva, she'll bury the chopped up pieces and Tim will write your epitaph. _If you set out for revenge against one person dig two graves_, is what he'll write and then everyone will have a nice dance party on your grave!"

"You didn't mention yourself in that lovely description Abby."

"I don't care whether I'm in the ground or whether I'm joining in the dance party. I just like to know you'll get what's coming to you if you hurt me." She said dully.

"Which of your team mates do you think has their phones on them right now?"

She attempted to shrug in response, but her position made it impossible. "All of them?" Was what she went for instead.

"I'll send this to Ziva then." Boss decided.

"Send what to Ziva?" Abby asked slowly.

She instantly regretted asking as she saw Short hold up a camera and she instantly knew what was about to happen. "Why are you going to send this to Ziva? To scare her? In case you didn't realize Ziva is one of the coolest people ever and she's like a completely awesome ninja who doesn't get scared by anything. If she reacts to the video at all it'll probably be to break something, maybe Tony's arm, or Palmer's leg, but she wouldn't attack Vance, no he's just… she just wouldn't-"

Abby stopped talking and screamed. Pain exploded in her shoulder. She glanced down at it without even thinking about it and she wished she hadn't. She could see the knife sticking out as he twisted it deeper. She just couldn't stop screaming, both from pain and from horror.

"Ziva, Ziva, don't start breaking things, tell Shorty and Boss that I left the keys to their van in my lab, I think I slipped and hit my head last night and dropped them under the Mass-spec and you know I was out cold for at least two hours. I think I'm going to need a lot more drugs than the ones in my lab when you find me…"

She slipped backwards in the chains and out into the darkness.

**Poor Abby! I felt guilty just writing this! Reviews please!**


	5. Chapter 5

"Abby's phone's gone boss!" Mcgee called from where he sat at his desk.

"Where was it last McGee?"

"I don't, I couldn't… the trace wasn't working yet."

"Well find it McGee!" Gibbs roared.

"Boss the tracker's been destroyed or removed, we can't track where it is-"

"Then find where it was McGee. Even a compass direction is help!"

McGee just nodded and the only sound that could be heard from his desk was his rapid typing and hacking and tracking.

"Ziva, Tony. You two got anything?"

"I reviewed the security footage of Abby's lab." Tony said.

"And… What?" Gibbs prompted.

"The guy was in her lab when she got in this morning. Tall guy at least six foot. She grabbed something from under the mass-spec and the guy waved his gun in her face. She goes out of the camera shot for a bit until Ziva comes into the lab. We don't have audio on the cameras but Ziva already filled in what they said. Once Ziva leaves Abby makes a break for the door but he stops her. He hit her in the head with the gun and she showed him the escape shaft. The external camera then picked up another gunman just as she came out of the shaft. They got her in a van but the plates are covered and then they drove off." Tony explained.

Gibbs nodded. "You pick up the faces?"

"I ran them through." Ziva said. Gibbs turned to her. "The tall man, the one from Abby's lab. He's Mark Chain."

"Mark Chain? I don't recognize that name." Tony butted in.

"You shouldn't recognize it. Once Tim, Abby and I had to go to court and we had to testify against Chain's brother. It was a quick close, armed robbery and a marine was killed. There were hundreds of pieces of forensic evidence all pointing at Chain and then Abby found gunshot residue on his shirt. So we testified for that and he was put away." Ziva explained quickly.

"Ok. The second man?"

"No match. Which means-"

"He has no record." Gibbs interrupted.

Ziva nodded with a little smile on her face. They were making slight headway. And that is better than nothing.

Suddenly her phone beeped. She looked at the message, it was a video. She pressed play without even thinking and less than a second in she yelped in shock. Instantly the whole team turned and looked at her. She stood up on shaky legs and went over to McGee's computer.

Without showing him the video she connected her phone up to the computer and transferred the video so that it played on the screen. Gibbs dropped the coffee he was holding. Tony's paper ball he had in his hand, about to throw at McGee's head, he instead let it drop to the ground.

Ziva noticed Palmer and Ducky coming out of the elevator, so she moved across the room to meet them halfway. She tried to warn them away, but that didn't stop them. Palmer took one look at the video and had to turn away and Ziva had to quickly run and wheel a chair over for Ducky before he collapsed.

Only McGee managed to keep the calm pseudo. He listened to everything Abby was saying and he typed it down, so that they wouldn't need to watch the video another time. When it ended the whole room was in stunned silence.

"She's trying to tell us something." McGee said after a while. "Ziva, can you take a look at this?"

She came straight over to him and read through the words Abby had spoken.

"They're going after the whole team, they only grabbed her as a victim of opportunity. There are only two men she thinks, the tall one, Chain I presume is the boss and the other man is considerably shorter. She was loaded into their van, they knocked her over the head and knocked her out for at least two hours while she was in the van and then they drugged her."

"You got all that from the ultimate code language?" Tony asked dubiously, his usual smile returning to his face.

"It's quite easy really. She's just transposed the significant details into other situations."

Tony nodded. Having nothing he could say back to that, so instead he turned his attention to Ducky, Gibbs and Palmer. "Ducky, you might want to take Gibbs down to autopsy to make sure he's not comatose." He attempted to chuckle, but nothing would come.

The situation was just too damn bad.

**How sad! Tony can't laugh. Gibbs is traumatized. L Let me know what you think! Xxx**


	6. Chapter 6

"Jethro?" Ducky asked. Both Palmer and McGee had led their boss down to autopsy and both had promptly left. Gibbs hadn't spoken, in the five minutes since the video had ended he had blinked twice. Twice. It was eerily terrifying for Jimmy and Tim to see him like that.

Ducky sat just in front of him, waving his hand in front of his vacant stare. Never before had Gibbs gone into a state like this. Not even when Caitlin Todd died just after saying that she thought she'd have to die before she got a compliment. Not even when Jenny died. Not ever, but now… now he had a vacant stare and wasn't speaking.

He considered slapping him across the face. No, that would have to be plan B. Throw a bucket of water over him? Plan C. Gibbs would probably boot him straight out of the lab if he poured water all over his clean shirt, tie and his head.

But what on earth could he use as a plan A? He eventually stopped thinking about it and just leaned forward and placed both of his hands on Gibb's shoulders, lightly shaking him. This simple action caused Gibbs eyes to stir and move so that he focused on Ducky, his gaze was still cold and empty though.

"Jethro, we will get her back." Ducky said. "It would be impossible not to bring Abigail back. We have a team of the best agents that we could possibly hope for. I don't know about you, because you aren't really on your game right now, but I know for a fact that Tony and Ziva and Palmer won't stop looking for their, as good as sister, and I also know that Tim will never stop searching. What about you Jethro? I can't go out in the field to search for her, are you going to come back and do enough searching for both of us?"

"What if we lose her Duck?" He asked quietly. There it was, Ducky was in. He'd successfully made his way through the first of the walls.

"Oh, Jethro. We won't lose her. She's tough. You never know, maybe she'll get herself back to us without our help."

It was then Gibbs started crying, so Ducky just sat there, rubbing his hand on his back trying to sooth him. This was unusual, for Gibbs to show emotion like this.

Ziva was standing just outside of the autopsy door. She heard the entire exchange between Ducky and Gibbs. She didn't dare go through the door, Gibbs was crying, all hell was about to break lose. She needed to warn the others.

As quietly as she could, which was extremely quiet, she backed away from the door and ran up the stairs to the bullpen. She went in to see Tony, Tim and Jimmy sitting down by Tony and Tim's desks. "Ziva? What's up?" Tony asked.

"Gibbs is, Gibbs is crying." She stuttered.

All three of the boys' mouths fell open.

"Gibbs is…crying?" Tony repeated.

"How bad is this going to get? How bad is it already for Gibbs to be crying?" Tim asked quietly.

"Ziva, are you sure he's crying?" Tony asked.

"I'm not an idiot Tony! He's crying! Crying on Ducky's shoulder in autopsy! If you're brave enough go and see for yourself!" She snapped.

Everyone was quiet for a moment. "What would happen to this team if Abby doesn't make it back?" Palmer asked quietly.

"We can't think like that Mr. Palmer." Everyone turned round. Ducky and Gibbs were just coming out of the elevator. Lucky enough for them Gibbs seemed to have awoken from his stupor.

"Everybody back to work."

**I need reviews! Let me know what you think!**


	7. Chapter 7

Abby had to remain positive. She had to keep hoping that McGee and Gibbs and all the others would come for her. She had told them all that she could in the time she had without it sounding too information-like. She just had to wait. She had no idea where she was, the team probably had no idea where she was, but Gibbs would find her anyway.

Her captors had had the sense to put a little bandage on the knife wound in her shoulder, she was slightly grateful, but she couldn't stop her overly educated brain from wondering to the fact that if she was, wherever she was, for too long then infection would set in and then… well, after infection it was a one way trip to heaven, or hell depending on what you believed, but she certainly hoped it wouldn't get that far anyway.

Anticipation was killing her the most, anticipation, the silent killer, well, along with smoke and anthrax and carbon monoxide… but that wasn't the point. They weren't going to smoke the place yet, they didn't seem like the type of people to have access to anthrax and she had already survived carbon monoxide from the exhaust fumes of the robot car, she wasn't going to be killed quietly, that much she knew. Most likely if they were going to kill her they'd record it and send it to Gibbs. God. That would definitely break him.

She could see the phone, it wasn't too far away from her, but it was across the room and being chained against a wall that meant she couldn't get to it to be able to call the team to save her. There was no doubt that if she, no, when she got out of this McGee, Tony and Ziva would be pinning her to the autopsy table while Gibbs forced Ducky to implant a tracker in her head.

She was jolted out of her thoughts by the sounds of footsteps approaching the door. The door swung open, revealing the pair of men, brandishing kitchen knives like gleeful children running in the hallways of their primary school with scissors. She fought to keep her face straight, to not show any emotion, to not look amused or scared or anything at all. Personally she thought that her poker face could rival Gibbs's.

"You ready, Abby?" Boss asked. Quick as a flash she took in what he was holding, she didn't see a camera and that almost certainly meant that they weren't going to kill her, or at least not at this moment. She dared open her mouth.

"Are you ready to let me go?" She asked confidently.

"Now, why would we do that?" Boss answered her question with a question.

"Because if you don't, my team is going to come here and kill you. Didn't we already go over this?" She rolled her eyes.

"We know your team is going to find us. Even if we were to let you know they would find us. It's just a question of when."

"Why don't you let me go and that way my team might be persuaded to not chase you off the edge of the earth."

"We're already on borrowed time. Might as well have fun with it."

Already on borrowed time, that must have meant that one or both of them had done something like this before. Ok, that meant they probably wouldn't fall for any of her tricks that she might have gotten away with if they were first time offenders. Her options were slowly dying out. She would just have to try and get more help to her team, or else just try and get herself loose.

This time she was knocked out of the labyrinth of her mind by a searing pain. She came back into the room to see that Shorty was carving a set of ten parallel lines on her left arm. She tried her hardest not to scream, she really did, but alas. She just couldn't hold in the screams after the seventh cut. She gave in when the fire consumed everything of her. She couldn't go anywhere to escape from it. Her whole body was burning and she had a feeling they weren't done with her yet.

**More of Abby for you! Let me know what you think! Xxx**


	8. Chapter 8

They hadn't left too long ago. She knew that she had at least a little while, so she started to pull her hands out of the shackles. She worked on them for what felt like hours on end, her wrists were bleeding streams of blood down her arms and she was pretty sure that she'd broken at least two of her fingers, but she'd done it.

Her hands were free. But they were coming back, she could hear them coming, all she could do was pray that it wouldn't be too bad, she couldn't lose consciousness, if she did she'd be found out and re chained and probably wouldn't have another chance to escape again.

She slipped her hands back into the now considerably looser chains and held onto them for dear life so it didn't look like she had in fact freed herself. As soon as the two of them came in her hopes were dashed, they were carrying the camera. They were sending another message. They were going to hurt her, bad. Worse than the blindingly itchy uniform lines on her arms.

She smiled weakly and bitterly as they looked at her. They set the camera up, with Shorty behind it and Boss came over to Abby, holding firmly in his grasp… nothing. God. She steadied her grasp on the chains as she anticipated what was coming. "I'm going to get out of this, one way or the other you know." She said.

He ignored her. The first hit was to her face. He used such force that her head snapped back and she felt blood running from her nose and mouth. He kept hitting her and she could feel herself starting to try and hide from the pain and slip into unconsciousness, so she had to find something to occupy her mind with instead.

The only thing her mind could come up with was the periodic table. Hydrogen, hit, Helium, hit, Lithium, hit, Beryllium, hit, Boron, hit, Carbon, hit… her mind became a jumble of elements, symbols and pain. She wanted to speak to Tim, to Gibbs, to Tony, Ziva, Palmer. She wanted to tell them that she had freed her hands and that they didn't need to worry, that she could survive this beating and she was going to be fine.

She tried to think of a way she could tell them that her hands were free, or tell them anything at all without sounding suspicious, but she couldn't. Her mind was too sluggish. It was taking all her mental power to stay awake and she found herself unable to multitask.

Eventually the men left and she sighed with relief. The camera was gone. Gibbs and the team were going to be receiving another video of her. She didn't give herself a moment of rest, she pulled her hands back out of the chains and then after a little while of messing with her ankle chains, she got her feet free as well.

She was unsteady out of the chains, but she managed to take a few shaky steps over to where they had left a phone. When she caught it in her hand she felt relief. She clutched it tightly and then flipped it open. Suddenly she found herself grateful that she had committed McGee's number to memory.

Hurriedly she typed it in and dialed. It rang twice and then Tim picked up the phone on the third ring. "Who is this?" He asked.

She couldn't help but laugh in relief.

"Who is this?" He repeated.

"Tim, Tim, it's me. It's Abby."

**Woohoo! Go Abby! Let me know what you think! Xxx**


	9. Chapter 9

Tim nearly dropped the phone. His hands started shaking, but he managed to keep his phone steady enough so that he didn't drop it. He raised his hand and waved the others over, with it being early the next morning everyone had only just arrived, so that meant that everyone was in the bullpen. They all stopped moving and then he spoke and they understood. "Abby?" He cried.

Gibbs, Tony, Ziva, Jimmy and Ducky were around him in seconds, all leaning as close as they possibly could to the phone, he was grateful that nobody tried to snatch it from him. "Abby, are you alright?"

"They're going to send you another video. Ignore it. I'm fine, well other than a lot of bruises, a stab wound, etc… I got out of the chains and I don't know where I am and you better be tracking this cell phone McGee!"

"I am, I am." He confirmed as he balanced the phone between his shoulder and ear and typed like the wind, trying to get a fix. He needed to keep her talking; otherwise he might think he was hallucinating. "Abby, what else have they done to you?" He asked, slightly uncertain of what she was going to say.

"They haven't done much else to me really, I just hurt myself escaping." Her voice was shaky and weak and McGee hated that he couldn't do anything at all about it until the stupid computer got a fix on her location. "Tim, Tim, I don't know what to do. If I stay here they might come back and… but if I leave I have no idea where I am or where I'm going and I could die of hypothermia or get infection or who knows what…"

"Shush, Abby you'll be fine. The computer will get a fix on your location and then we'll find you." He comforted.

"That's the thing! It's frustrating because I'm perfectly capable of handling myself and kicking butt, but here I am, scared about leaving a room!"

"Abby, I think Gibbs needs to talk to you." Tim laughed. He heard her let out a pained laugh and then he handed the phone to Gibbs, who held it tightly with both of his hands.

"Abbs! That's my girl, we're going to find you. The computer's going to find a fix and then I'm going to get you into a hospital and instead of morphine, I'll get you a drip of caff-pow." He said.

"Gibbs, I won't want to be in a hospital, I'll be happy with Ducky checking me out and then letting me stay in the autopsy room with him and Palmer till I'm cleared to work again."

"Somehow, I don't think Vance will allow that."

"Just find me Gibbs."

The sound of the computer dinging, telling them that it had found a fix on the location was music to Tim's ears. He didn't even need to announce where the location was, already everyone was crowding around him and his computer reading the location for themselves. Gibbs handed the phone over to Ducky as he, Tony, Ziva and Tim got ready to leave.

"Abigail, they're on their way to come collect you."

**I need reviews! Give me reviews on how you think this is going please! xxx**


	10. Chapter 10

She ran to the door and stuck her head out of it, the blast of cold air nearly enough to bowl her over, as refreshing as it was. She looked round. There wasn't a road leading up to this place, it was more of a path, there was no way a simple car would be able to get up there. She peered as far into the distance as she could and much to her disappointment, her kidnappers were driving up in their all-terrain vehicle back up to her.

"Ducky? Ducky, what do I do? They're coming back. What if Gibbs and Timmy don't get here fast enough and they-"

"Calm down Abby. Just get out of there." Ducky ordered her calmly.

She didn't need to be told twice. She raced out of the door and up the small incline opposite the cabin and over into the trees. She ran as fast as she could and as far as she could, until she found herself gasping for breath and almost unable to keep walking.

It was only at that point that she remembered how malnourished and weakened she was. She mentally cursed herself for not checking the cabin for any food or water. She was a scientist that worked for a federal agency, why hadn't she thought far enough ahead to try and find water?

She then heard angry swearing and her kidnappers coming her way. She was positive they hadn't spotted her, but she needed to move. As fast as she could she scrambled away again and took off at a run, with the phone clutched tightly in her hand.

She was at least revealed that she had chosen to wear flat shoes on the morning they decided to take her however long ago that was, and she was also grateful that they hadn't had the sense to take them off her.

Her black tank top and dark jeans not providing her with much warmth. Her lab coat had long since been taken away from her. She would have to find a way to somehow circle back and get back to the path when the team was close enough.

"Ducky, tell me the team's close." She begged as she raised the phone up to her ear whilst running. ,

"Five minutes out." Palmer supplied.

"Any idea who's driving?"

"Gibbs." Ducky said.

"They'll be here in two."

She heard footsteps not too far behind her again, yet she couldn't find the strength to speed up at all and she had no type of proper defense training either. As soon as she was back to work she was going to have Ziva and Tony train her.

"Ducky, what do I do? I can't, Ducky. Ducky I need help." She cried as she tried her best to keep going.

It broke Ducky's heart to hear her like this, begging for him to help her as she ran for her life through a forest. "Abby, try and find somewhere to hide. Somewhere you can manage." He tried to direct her.

She tripped over a tree root. It hurt a hell of a lot more than it should have. While she was on the ground she noticed that the roots made a peculiar shape and that the actual tree was raised off of the ground by just less than the distance from her ankle to her knee.

Decision made. She scrambled through the roots with a slight degree of difficulty and lay flat on her stomach under the tree in the darkness. "Ducky, please shush." She whispered. He went quiet. She stayed perfectly still. The men were coming, she could hear their footsteps, but they weren't very close yet.

But they would be eventually.

**Please tell me what you think! xxx**


	11. Chapter 11

She didn't dare breath, her heart beat so frantic and panicky that she was sure they'd be able to hear it once they got to her hiding place. They weren't close yet, the footsteps were distant still. Ducky was being blessedly silent.

A couple of tears leaked out of her eyes, she hurt all over and she was cold. "Ducky, how far are the team?" She asked as quietly as she could.

"Three minutes."

The footsteps were a lot closer. She didn't have three minutes to wait for the team. Those men were going to find her and they were going to kill her and then wait for the team and massacre all of them…

She had to occupy her mind with something else before she drove herself crazy. She was hiding under a tree in a forest. But how did the tree actually end up raised from the ground? It was like an anomaly among the simple forest trees, the kind of thing you saw in TV shows or read about in fiction books, not what you found yourself taking refuge from your torturous kidnappers under.

It took her a moment for it to hit her. She was hiding under a scientific anomaly. That statement really didn't need to be strung together. It was like when you were a kid playing hide and seek and you hid behind a lamp post. Oh God. How stupid could she get?

She was a forensic scientist for Gods sake. How did she manage to hide herself under a scientifically anomalous, raised from the ground, tree? How did she manage to have that much bad luck? Personally she seriously thought the universe owed her some good luck. But then again she hadn't had Caff-pow for however long and… Wait, how was that at all related to the universe?

She just needed to stay calm and quiet. That was all. Her team was less than three minutes away, coming to find her, to get her out of this mess. She wouldn't need to attempt to kick butt on her own, she just needed to wait and hope.

Dry ground just to the left of her cracked. Footsteps. They were close. Closer than she wanted them to be, so close in fact that she could see the walking boots that one of them was wearing. She tried to hold her breath, but she only found herself failing dramatically at that. Her pulse was ringing in her ears and she felt sick with the anticipation. All they would need to do was bend down to do up their laces again and they'd see her.

But they wouldn't need to tie their laces, they wouldn't need to bend down and Ducky wouldn't-

"Mr. Palmer have you finished your paperwork?"

Jimmy didn't respond, but just the sound of Ducky's voice was enough. They bent down and looked into her hiding place, seeing her instantly. Before she could even open her mouth to scream they had hold of her ankle and were pulling her out.

"DUCKY!" She cried out for him even though he wasn't there and she reached her hand out and only just managed to grab onto the phone and have it dragged out with her. Once she was back out in the open, her instincts kicked in.

She struck out with both her feet, striking both her captors, one in the ankle and the one who had been dragging her, in the face. They let her go and she quickly scrambled to her feet, holding the phone so tightly that her knuckles were whitening.

All of a sudden the men were on either side of her, so she knew that it would be exactly like giving herself up if she tried to run. She held her fists up in front of her to try and protect herself, but they both advanced on her quickly.

The phone was quickly forgotten as she was forced to launch into attack and defense mode. She remembered every time she had watched security footage with Ziva fighting to take down men twice her size.

The first man, shorty, wrapped his arms around her waist and Abby froze up for a moment before quickly she backed up and rammed him as hard as she could into one of the close by trees, effectively disabling him for a moment.

Boss came at her next. He didn't mess about, he came right up to her and punched her straight in the face, hard. He used such force that her head snapped back and she fell backwards onto the ground and cried out in pain.

She could hear Ducky and Palmer shouting down the phone, but that was long since discarded on the ground somewhere close to them, she wasn't sure where. Ziva had taught her once that if you stayed on the ground, you were as good as dead, that your attackers had beaten you if you stayed on the ground, so she needed to get up, needed to not be stuck on the ground when her team arrived.

None of them really thought of her as someone that could take care of herself, they thought they just all needed to make it their personal mission to protect her, she needed to prove them wrong.

**Please give me reviews!**


	12. Chapter 12

Her strength was very quickly draining, so much that her legs were violently shaking and it was a battle just to remain stood up. She could still hear Ducky and Jimmy, but she could no longer pick out what they were saying, everything had gone into a haze. She was fighting for her life, nothing else mattered.

Everything was a blur, new wounds mixed in with the old, adrenaline fuelling everything she did. She already knew she had some pretty mashed up fingers, but now she knew they were shattered and strangely enough, she didn't care.

She couldn't stand still for more than half a second, every moment she was still she had her back to one of her attackers. But she found that her feet weighed more and more with every movement, until one final hit from Boss sent her back to the ground, gasping for air and she just couldn't find the strength to pull herself up again.

On her hands and knees she tried to crawl away from them when they grabbed at her, but she didn't get far before they blocked her path again. The team had to be so close to her, so close to coming to her aid, she had to keep fighting, keep herself alive.

Somehow she pulled herself to her feet again. If she had a gun she'd be fine, she could shoot them from a distance away and then she wouldn't be so exhausted, but she didn't have a gun. She didn't have anything working to her advantage.

Distantly she thought she heard something that sounded like Ducky saying "One minute" but she couldn't be sure. All of a sudden she felt arms round her tightly and she fought to try and escape, but nothing was working. "Let me go!" She shouted. "I didn't do anything to either of you!" A few tears raced down her cheeks, but she couldn't afford to cry, she was already dehydrated.

Something glinted in the sunlight. Guns. She had totally not realized… or maybe she had just forgotten… that they had guns. Her mind was so sluggish that she couldn't even string a coherent thought together.

She was shaking and needed to formulate a plan very quickly. There was nothing she could think of that would help her, they had her trapped. The feel of cold metal against her skin only reaffirmed her already foregone conclusion.

**Ok, this chapter is really short, but I thought it made it more dramatic. Give me your opinion on the direction of this story! I really enjoy reading what you have to say. xxx**


	13. Chapter 13

Tim, Ziva, Tony and Gibbs were vested up, armed with their guns and the keys for the SUV at faster speeds than they ever thought possible. At first Tony was going to suggest that Ziva drive, because she was a completely crazy driver and would probably have them to Abby's location in a third of the time it would take him, but one look at Gibbs told him to shut up and that Gibbs wouldn't stick to anything lower than ten miles above the speed limit at any given time.

He was going to call Shotgun next, but he didn't. Tim looked like he was going to break at a moments notice, so he thought it was only kind for him to let Tim take shotgun and for him and Ziva to sit in the back together throughout the journey.

"Dinozzo." His head shot up from where he had decided to stare at the road ahead of them from the back seat.

"Yes boss?"

"Get Palmer on the line. Tell him to line us in with the conversation between Ducky and Abby."

"Yes boss." He repeated as he pulled out his phone and called Palmer, McGee had to tell him what to tell Palmer so that he could actually patch them through, but they managed it and then he could hear everything Abby was saying.

Quick as a flash, before Gibbs could snap at him again he pulled the phone away from his ear and put it on speaker. It turns out he had very inopportune timing. At that exact moment the car was filled with Abby crying out for Ducky and it made the car lurch forward with such force that their speed went up at least ten miles an hour.

Tony felt his hand vibrating as he held the phone, almost as though the phone was vibrating him straight to the core, when in fact the phone wasn't doing anything other than telling them what Abby was doing.

Thankfully Ziva understood, seeing his hand shaking and she gently eased the phone out of his hand and held it herself. Tony turned to her and smiled, she smiled in return and then he lowered his hand into his lap, where he had to hold it down with his other hand to stop it from carrying on shaking.

He tried to separate the car, from what was going on where Abby was, but he found himself unable to tune out her cries of pain. He couldn't stop himself from visualizing exactly what was going on. He could see every hit she received, every comeback she made.

Everything sounded to be happening so slowly, yet it was all happening in the mere minutes they were in the SUV. Tim pulled his phone out from where he was sat in the seat in front of Tony, he called Ducky, double checking that they were going the right way and then directing Palmer on how to send the map through to their phones.

They pulled up when the road ended just outside a cabin. Before the car had even come to a stop McGee was out of it and following the signal up the nearby hill, with Gibbs by his side after a few moments and Ziva and Tony deciding to cover the rear, but only by a pace or two.

They went less than a mile into the forest before they could hear people talking. Two men. They couldn't hear Abby anymore. That only made them speed up, until they came through the trees and saw a sight that they never wanted to see, that all four of them knew they could never not see.

**Sorry for the awful cliffhanger, but send me in a review about what you think! xxx**


	14. Chapter 14

It took the team a moment to recover. There Abby was, beaten black and blue, covered in blood, clutched tightly in the arms of one man with the other holding a gun to her head. She was shaking, barely conscious and deathly pale, but she was alive. Neither Gibbs nor McGee said anything for a minute, so Ziva and Tony moved forward, taking the lead.

They raised their guns and aimed them at the two men. "Let her go!" Tony shouted. Nobody moved. Tony tried again, "Let her go!" He raised his voice louder.

"NCIS needs to be punished!" The tall one, Chain, roared back, his finger hovering dangerously close to the trigger. Tony and Ziva glanced at each other. They considered shooting the two men right that second, but they knew that that was too dangerous, that if they were even a millisecond too slow that they wouldn't hesitate to shoot Abby.

"You don't want to do this." Ziva said, a little more gently. Ziva being gentle, wow, this situation was serious. "You don't want to shoot Abby. You want revenge on NCIS, Abby isn't a field agent. I worked on your case. I'm a field agent. Abby isn't. She doesn't deserve this."

It took Tony a second, but he realized what she was doing. She was being a distraction. Tony glanced over his shoulder to where McGee was standing just out of sight. It took McGee less than a second to understand.

Tony stepped further forward to stand closer to Ziva. "Let her go. Let Abby go. She doesn't deserve this. You don't want to shoot her. You know what, I think that you don't really want to kill Abby; I don't think you want to kill anyone. I think you want to hurt someone. Someone who works in the field. Someone who works on cases like your brother's every day."

"Tony!" Ziva hissed. He ignored her, knowing that they needed to stall them more.

"I think you want to lower your weapon. I think that you want to put that gun down and hand it over to us so that we don't have to kill you, but you think that your brother wouldn't want you to hand yourself over to NCIS agents. But you know what? Your brother can't influence what you do."

Another step forward. The distance was rapidly closing in between Tony and Abby, he hadn't been stopped yet. He looked at her eyes, she was looking at him like her life depended on it, which it probably did, yet her gaze was unfocused, like she was staring through a haze.

He gave her a small smile before he looked up again at the kidnappers. "Put those guns away. You don't want to kill Abby, nobody ever wants to hurt Abby, she's like my little sister. The bubbliest Goth you're ever going to meet. You can't possibly want to lay a finger on her."

The next three seconds were complete haywire. Three gunshots. Four people on the ground. Blood forming fireworks on the dry dirt. Silence in the forest.

**Dun dun dun. Another cliff hanger! :) What do you think? xxx**


	15. Chapter 15

For a moment everyone was stunned. Nobody even so much as breathed. But then everything suddenly sprang to action. "TONY!" Abby screamed from her place on her stomach in the dirt as she struggled onto her hands and knees and crawled over to him. The bullet appeared to have gone through and through his leg and there wasn't a lot of blood.

Her hands were shaking and she was crying without even thinking about it. "Tony, are you Ok? You're not allowed to bleed out!"

He couldn't help but laugh. "I'm not going to bleed out Abs."

"Oh, Ok."

It was only at that stage that the rest of the team sprang into action. McGee got to Abby first, even though he was furthest away and Ziva had enough sense to go to her partner so that McGee could just be with Abby for a while until the ambulance arrived and Gibbs stood in the middle of both pairs, waiting patiently.

McGee was on the ground with Abby. He wrapped her up in his arms and he felt her nails dig into his shoulders, even though he had the thick NCIS jacket on. "I'm here Abby. I've got you."

"Thanks Timmy. I knew you could save me." She said quietly, before her head fell back and she slipped into the unconsciousness she had been fighting for so long.

"Where's that damn ambulance!" Gibbs roared as he changed his gaze to face the two kidnappers. Both were dead. He couldn't say that he was disappointed at all. As if on cue four paramedics came through the trees, carrying two gurneys between them.

It all happened blindingly fast after that. Fornell's team arrived just as both ambulances pulled away. Abby and McGee in one and Tony and Ziva in the other, leaving Gibbs to tell Fornell what was going on and then race over to the hospital where Ducky and Jimmy would have probably arrived and the rest of his team be in the waiting room trying to drown themselves in coffee.

Obviously Fornell could tell that he wanted to be off as fast as possible, so he didn't make him stay long. He ordered Gibbs to fill him in later at the hospital and that Fornell would visit as soon as Abby was well enough.

When he ran through the doors of the emergency room McGee, Ducky and Jimmy were waiting for him. He couldn't see Ziva or Tony anywhere. Ducky stood up and walked over to him. "Jethro." He said with a nod, putting his hand on his shoulder.

"How are they, Duck?"

"Tony's already situated in a room of his own. The doctor said he'll see if he can get Abby sharing with him when she comes out of surgery. Ziva's waiting with Tony, the doctor told us he tried and I quote 'grand theft wheel chair'"

Gibbs nodded. "So Abby's in surgery?"

"Yes, but she was quite fortunate, it didn't seem like the wounds had gotten any major infections. The only issues were the blood loss and the stress on her heart."

"Did they lose her Duck? Before she went into surgery?"

"What do you mean Jethro?" Ducky knew what he meant, but he didn't want to say.

"Did her heart stop in the ambulance?"

"I don't really think that information is pertinent right now-"

"DUCK!"

"Twice! Jethro, she flat lined twice on the way here!"

Gibbs softened up a little.

"Now, Leroy Jethro Gibbs." Ducky said in the tone of voice as a parent would do to a misbehaving child, "Stop using my name as a substitute for a swear word."

**Reviews?**


	16. Chapter 16

"Zee-vah! Let me go out into the waiting room!" Tony moaned.

"You need to rest your leg Tony! You've been shot, you cannot just stand up and walk anywhere you wish to!"

"Then get me a wheel chair!"

She glared at him, clearly not swayed yet.

"Ziva, if you get me a wheel chair, I'll, I'll, I'll let you sit me right next to Ducky." She still wasn't completely swayed but he was getting there. Either his pleas were working or he was just annoying her to death.

"Tony, the doctors want you on bed rest for at least a couple of hours. In here."

"Well, I took that 'in here' as more of an in this hospital 'in here'." Ziva turned to leave. "Ziva, if you get me a wheel chair, I'll take you out to any restaurant you want to go to and pay for anything you want! Ziva please!"

She stopped dead in her tracks and then turned round. "Did you just ask me on a date?"

"Well, yes I suppose it did kind of sound that way but I didn't mean it like that I just meant it would be kind of like a date because you could choose the place and I'd buy everything. Please don't go ninja assassin on me! I'm already injured!"

She didn't say anything, she just left the room. Tony was worried that she'd come back with her gun or better yet his gun and shoot him with it just so that she could pass it off as a suicide. So, shock was the understatement of the year when she came back in with a wheel chair.

"The first weekend you're off crutches that we have off, I'm quite looking forward to not having to buy anything." She said as she wheeled it until it was right beside him and then she helped him lower himself into it.

"Imagine what Abby will do when she finds out about this! She'll start planning a wedding!" Tony laughed. Ziva laughed too, momentarily and then both of them realized. "Unless Abby…"

"No, Tony. She'll be fine."

"But what if she isn't fine? I mean look at every single female member on the NCIS team except for you! Kate is dead! Director Shepherd is dead!-"

"Anthony Dinozzo! Abby is not going to die! She hog tied her assistant in her lab when he came at her with a knife! She is not going to die! Now, are you about ready for me to wheel you out into the same room as Ducky, Palmer, Gibbs and McGee?"

"Damn it, I forgot about McGeek! He's going to be in pieces!"

"I'll take that as a yes." She then wheeled him out of the hospital room. As soon as they left the room a doctor charged at them.

"Agent Dinozzo! Not this again, you need to stay in your room! I told you that you're staying over night for observation!"

"I'll get you for this Tony!" Ziva hissed as she straightened up to face the doctor. "I'm sorry doctor, but doctor Mallard in the waiting area will keep an eye on him and I will deliver him back to his room when we have some news about our forensic scientist, personally."

Amazingly the doctor let her wheel him to the waiting room. The whole team smiled when they saw him and they all stood up and moved down in the chairs till they got to an area that had a gap in between the chairs, they sat so that Ziva could wheel Tony into the gap and sit in the empty chair in between him and McGee, with Gibbs on the chair next to him and Ducky beside Tony on the other side and Jimmy beside him.

"Hey Tony, how did you get Ziva to help you escape?" McGee asked.

"He offered to take me on a date." Ziva told him.

McGee's eyes widened, but he said nothing.

"Rule 12 Dinozzo." Gibbs said.

"I didn't actually ask her on a date, I just said I'd take her out and pay for everything-"

"Like a date." Ziva cut off.

**Ah, the infamous rule 12 makes an appearance! Reviews?**


	17. Chapter 17

Hours later Gibbs had drank at least five cups of coffee, the whole team had lost count of exactly how many he had had, Jimmy had decided to run the coffee runs, for everyone, purposely bringing back only two cups at a time so that it took him more time before he had to sit down again.

McGee had given up pacing not too long since and now was sitting, perfectly still and perfectly silent. It had creeped the whole team out at first, but they had given up questioning it now. Ducky approached the doctors once every half an hour, dozing in his waiting room chair in the spaces in between.

Ziva had been sitting with her hand on Tony's shoulder, yet somehow the pair had ended up sitting with their hands knitted together, resting on the arm of the wheelchair and Tony had fallen asleep, with his head resting against her shoulder.

"Family of Forensic Scientist Abigail Sciuto?"

Those six words shocked the whole team into action. Gibbs, Ziva, McGee, Palmer and Ducky were straight up and across the room.

"Um, guys!" Tony shouted.

Everyone turned and remembered that Tony couldn't actually wheel himself over to them.

"I'll get him." Ziva sighed as she went back over to him and then wheeled him over to the others.

"You're all family of Miss Sciuto?"

"I'm her boss." Gibbs said. "These three, are NCIS federal agents Dinozzo, David and McGee." He pointed to the trio, "And this is the official M.E of the NCIS agency and the primary care physician of the entire team, Doctor Mallard and his assistant, Palmer."

"Where's her family?"

"Flying in from out of state." McGee answered.

"Ok, so miss Sciuto as I believe you are all well aware, was in a very fragile state when she arrived here numerous hours ago. There were signs of infection setting in on the knife wounds on her arms and she has numerous open wounds on her face, stomach, arms and legs. It appears as though her left hand was badly broken, along with three out of the four fingers on that hand also, her right hand was in a much better state and only sprained. As you also know, her heart gave out twice on the way here, but she's improved greatly during the surgery to repair an internal injury and she seems to be in the clear now."

The whole group breathed a sigh.

"She's out of surgery and has been moved into the room it was recommended she share with Agent Dinozzo…"

"Can she have visitors?" Ducky asked.

"Yes and she should be waking up within the hour."

By the time he had finished speaking only Palmer and Ducky remained. "Thank you very much doctor. They're all just a little excited to see her on her road to recovery." Ducky said.

"You have no idea how many people do that to me a day, Doctor Mallard."

"Trust me. That group is like that all the time, they never let you finish your sentences."

**Collective sigh of relief. Everything seems to be going uphill for the team now that Abbs is safe in hospital. what did you guys think? xxx**


	18. Chapter 18

Darkness was reluctant to let her go. She couldn't bring herself to open her eyes, contented with just staying wrapped up in the darkness, sleeping, not having her team, her family, looking at her like she was broken, like she needed help, but she eventually fought it off and opened her eyes.

It took a while for the darkness to completely clear and for her eyes to bring the world back into focus, but when that did happen she nearly burst out laughing, but just managed to catch herself. The room she was in had two beds and only two chairs and one wheelchair. _Tony. _She knew instantly that he must have gotten someone to help him escape the room on that thing.

Tony was asleep on his hospital bed, with Ziva in the uncomfortable looking hospital chair beside him, her head on his chest and the two of them had their hands clenched tightly together as if the other one was their lifeline.

Ducky was in the other chair, the one closer to Abby, he was also asleep, snoring lightly. Jimmy had sat in the wheel chair, pushing the brakes down and he had fallen asleep with his head on the foot of her bed.

McGee was asleep on the floor in the space between Ducky and Palmer, covered in a hospital blanket and with one of Tony's spare pillows wedged under his head. The only one that wasn't in the room was Gibbs, but the whole team looked exhausted. They mustn't have slept much at all throughout the whole thing, then again technically neither had she.

She ached all over, but knew she was high on pain meds so the pain was a lot less than what she coped with when she was on her own. Her throat was dry, the cup of water was just an arms reach away. She reached and rested her hand on the table, she closed her fingers round the cup, but couldn't get her arm strong enough to move it back so she could drink it.

She heard the door close gently. She looked up from the battle her arm and the cup were having and smiled at the sight of Gibbs. She raised one of her unbroken fingers to her lips so that he knew to be quiet. He stepped around the wheel chair that held sleeping Jimmy and stepped over sleeping McGee.

He picked the cup of water straight up and helped Abby to drink it. "Thanks Gibbs."

"How long you been awake?"

"Not long, two minutes I suppose."

"I missed you Abbs." He said as he held her good hand in his. "Don't do something like that again."

"Yeah, sure Gibbs. Next time a gun toting kidnapper comes into my lab, I'll just say 'sorry to disappoint but I'm not allowed to be kidnapped, go take someone else'? That sounded so much more sarcastic in my head."

"Do you want me to wake them up?" He asked, referring to the entire sleeping team.

"How long have they been sleeping?"

"Two hours, McGee only an hour, I got a nurse to give me the blanket and pillows for him."

"And how long is it since they've had a good sleep?"

"Since you were taken, I doubt they've slept more than an hour at a time since."

"Let them sleep, we can just see who wakes up first."

Gibbs chuckled.

Abby shuffled across in her bed, leaving some space for Gibbs to lie down beside her. He smiled and slid himself onto the bed, being careful to avoid the IV wires and he slipped his arm round her shoulders and kissed her temple.

"Ziva will wake up first." He said.

"But what about McGee? He might." Abby said.

"Poor kid is exhausted, I could probably shout in his ear and he wouldn't wake up."

"They're all going to have aching muscles when they wake up aren't they?" Abby chuckled, "I mean look at how they're sleeping."

"All except Tony in his comfortable hospital bed."

"Tony and Ziva seem, close. What happened? Have you warned them about rule 12?"

"I warned them, but I warned you and McGee too and that doesn't seem to have deterred you. They both seem adamant that it's not a date anyway."

"They'll be married before they admit to going out on any dates. Tony's too scared of you."

"Good point." Gibbs smiled. "It's good to have you back Abby."

"It'll be good to have me back, when I can go back to my babies in the lab. They're probably all traumatized because nobody's been caring for them."

**Nice Abby and Gibbs moment there. What do you guys think? xxx **


	19. Chapter 19

Gibbs left to get another coffee, on his way out he lightly kicked the leg of Ziva's chair, effectively causing her to jolt awake. Her gaze fell upon Abby who was sat up in her hospital bed snickering. Then she realized why. Ziva couldn't believe it. She had fallen asleep holding hands with Tony and with her head on his chest! She sprang up so quickly that her head spun for half a second and she managed to wake Tony up in the process.

Ziva didn't notice though. Instead she leapt over to the side of Abby's bed and asked if she needed anything.

"No, Ziva. Gibbs has got it covered." The forensic scientist was grinning at her.

"Never leave me as the only female on the team ever again Abby." She said.

"Awhh! Ziva, you missed me!" Abby squealed, she held her arms up and at first Ziva had no idea what she was doing. "I can't exactly sit up any further so hug me!" Abby said stubbornly.

Ziva laughed and then leaned down and hugged Abby tightly. "Everyone missed you Abby."

"Hey Abby!" Tony said. "I would hug you, but that's kind of impossible considering I can't get up either."

Abby laughed. "Tony, you know what your gunshot wound means?" She asked.

He looked at her, blank.

"You aren't the hero because the hero character in, like every single action film EVER never gets shot!" She laughed.

"Are you saying I'm not the hero Abs?" He laughed.

"Well, would you say you are?" She said, grinning.

"Nah, that honor I'll give to McGee in this one." He shrugged. "Where is McGee anyway?"

"Down by Jimmy, sleeping."

"Sleeping? Really? I thought he'd be the first awake when he heard you talking."

"Gibbs said that he thought he was exhausted. I think it's cute seeing him sleep anyway."

"Ziva? Help me up." Tony said. She didn't move. "Please help me just that few meters over to Abby, Zee." He pleaded.

She sighed, but hooked one of his arms round her shoulder and helped him across the room until he could sit on Abby's bed. She left him sat beside Abby and instead sat herself down on his bed, propping herself up on his pillows, happy to be out of that uncomfortable chair.

Tony wrapped Abby up in his arms the moment that Ziva had helped him onto her hospital bed. She rested her head on his shoulder and he rested his chin on the top of her head, placing a kiss in her hair.

"Never again do you do something like this Abby. Do you hear me? My heart can't take it."

"Gibbs has already said nearly exactly that to me." She chuckled. "You are such a big brother, you know that?"

"I pride myself on being your older brother Abby." He laughed.

"Tony?" She whispered quietly enough that there was no way Ziva could hear her. "Do you want to go on the date with Ziva? I mean Gibbs told me that you kind of asked her in a sort of roundabout way but do you actually want to go out on a date with her or is it just a… I don't know just a thing?"

"Abby?"

"Yes Tony?"

"I don't know. Get back to me on your question when I'm back in my suit and I'm asking you about some sort of evidence in your lab with a caf-pow."

**So I have quite a few chapters sorted out, but I don't know what order to put them in. Should I have the next chapter be McGee/Abby, Ducky/Abby or Palmer/Abby centric? I've already put up the Gibbs/Abby and the Tony+Ziva/Abby. Let me know what you all think I should do. Love to hear what you guys all think xxx**


	20. Chapter 20

Ziva and Tony had talked to her for a while before she noticed that the two of them looked like they were asleep standing up, or in Tony's case , propped up on her bed, so she told them she was tired and both of them immediately apologized and went back to Tony's bed, Tony laid on one side and Ziva snuggled into him with her head on his chest and his arm wrapped around her.

She chuckled at their behavior, realizing that Ziva was probably so tired that she didn't even realize where she was. She remained sat up in her bed waiting for Gibbs to return so that she'd have someone to talk to again.

But instead she heard a groan and glancing around she saw that it was Tim who was waking from his uncomfortable slumber. She resisted the urge to cry out his name and make him come to her and wrap her in his arms and instead stayed quiet to see if he would go back to sleep. He didn't.

The second his eyes opened they were locked onto hers and she felt herself needing to be near him. It appeared to take him a minute to realize that she was awake, but as soon as he did he was on her feet and beside her.

He ran his fingers through her hair and then just stared at her for a moment, as if he was trying to decide what to say. "What do you need me to do Abby?" Was what he finally decided on.

She couldn't contain her laughter. He looked at her weirdly and when she could finally stop laughing she said "You've been sleeping on my hospital room floor for hours and it took you like five minutes to decide what you were actually going to say to me and the best you could come up with was, what do you need me to do?" When she repeated what he had said she did her best impersonation of him.

"Hey, I've had a stressful few days!" He laughed. At first he seemed to regret what he said, but then she laughed too.

"How much have you slept?" She whispered.

"Other than that two or three hours? Not much and not for more than an hour at a time." He shrugged like it was nothing. "I couldn't sleep knowing that you had nowhere to sleep." He said, quieter that time.

"McGee, I want you to know something, if something like this happens to either of us again, I want, no I don't want, I need you to know something." She said.

"Abby-" He went to say something but she raised her hand in protest.

"Timothy McGee! Shut up and kiss me!"

To her surprise he didn't recoil from her, shell shocked at such a response. Instead his eyes seemed to brighten up as if a weight had been lifted from his chest. She smirked as she knew that he was going to. He opened his mouth to speak, but again she raised her hand. "Do I need to repeat myself?" She scolded like a school teacher.

He opened his mouth for a third time, but seemed to think better of it and instead just simply shook his head.

That was all either of them needed and then he leaned in and gently his lips brushed hers, a beautiful, tantalizing mixture between passion and such a gentleness that she wondered if he thought she would break under his touch.

Both of them struggled to not deepen the kiss, but they knew they couldn't, not in front of the whole team who could very easily wake up at any point, or Gibbs could walk back in…

She broke apart and she realized what had just happened. Gibbs had somehow known that McGee would wake up whilst he was out, so took his time to give the pair some time as close to alone as they would probably be able to come until she was out of the hospital.

_Damn you Gibbs._ But she couldn't help but grin as she shuffled across in her hospital bed and Tim settled down beside her, his arm over her shoulders so that she could snuggle into him. Somehow, in just the few hours that she had been awake she knew that things would get better. Eventually.

**There you have it. A sweet McGee/Abby moment for all you fans out there. I've got to say I like how this came out, but I've never had to write an overly romantic scene anything close to that so I would really love to hear what you all thought of it. xxx**


	21. Chapter 21

The duo fell asleep not long after that. Gibbs came in and couldn't help but smile, the coffee residing in his hand making it a lot easier to overlook rule 12 very apparently broken, for both his injured team members it seemed. Clearly the rule itself hadn't worked very well, his three field agents and his forensic scientist had all broken it.

Ducky woke up almost as soon as he came into the room. "Ah, Jethro, I see our young Abigail has woken up at some point while I was asleep?"

"Yeah Duck. She seems as well as she can be all things considered."

"It shouldn't be too long before she can go home I believe. I think she just won't be able to be alone." Ducky told him. Ducky thought he would immediately launch into the fact that Abby would stay with him, but he didn't.

"She can stay with McGee," Was what he actually said.

"You are being very accepting about their budding relationship Jethro." Ducky said cautiously.

"As long as Abbs is safe and happy there's nothing more I can say." He shrugged.

"Awhh Gibbs!" Abby was awake. Her high pitched squeal wasn't very loud but it was enough to disturb everyone else in the room. Ziva and Tony woke up, looked at each other, looked at Gibbs and broke apart so fast that Ziva very nearly knocked over the hospital chair she sat in.

Jimmy also jolted awake and somehow the movement knocked whatever was holding the wheelchair in place and it started to roll, until it hit the door with a thud. "Jimmy my boy." Ducky sighed.

"Sorry doctor." He spluttered as he tried to get out of the chair and instead tripped over and would have landed flat on his face had Ziva not moved as quick as she did and caught him. His cheeks erupted in a blush. "Thank you, Ziva."

The entire room laughed.

When everyone was quiet again Gibbs cleared his throat. "Tony, get in the wheel chair." He turned to McGee, "I want to speak to both of you outside."

The two male agents cast each other a wary glance before McGee swung himself off of Abby's bed and Ziva helped Tony into the wheel chair before McGee helped him by pushing the chair out into the hallway after their boss.

"Yes boss?" Tony asked.

"Neither of you two can play dumb. I saw you in that hospital room and the very apparent rule broken. Rule 12 is one of my rules and yet both of you chose to break it."

"Uh, boss… uh, you see…" Both field agents tried to grovel like their lives depended on it, which they were almost sure they did, but neither could put the words into coherent sentences.

Gibbs raised his hand, both agents were instantly silent. "If either of you hurt them, I will do nothing, nothing at all to stop them both from torturing you to death and not leaving any evidence. I will lie in front of a jury and say that both were building the boat with me. Just take care of them and you will have nothing to worry about."

"Yes boss." Both of them said back to him, with Tony giving him a salute as the three went back into the room.

"Hey, Tony, did Gibbs just give us permission to break rule 12?" McGee hissed.

"I believe he did McGoo." Tony chuckled. "I believe he did."

**I think this story only has a couple more chapters. I'd love to know what you all think! xxx**


	22. Chapter 22

Abby was giddy with excitement. She was sat in Gibb's car, back in her normal clothes, or as normal as she could get still having her hand bound up and bandages still in various places on her. A white button up shirt with some dark jeans and some flat black pumps, her ankles still weren't strong enough for platforms, and her hair was back in the signature pigtails.

She and Gibbs pulled up outside the building and she leapt out of the car, before she had to stop herself and wince from her sore muscles. He didn't miss it and moved round the car and put his arm round her so that she could rest her head on his shoulder.

He helped her into the elevator and she was suddenly very relieved that Gibbs had insisted on picking her up at nine from the hospital so that they knew all the agents would be in the office when they arrived. They rode the elevator in silence until he pulled the stop lever and the elevator stopped.

"Gibbs! I don't need an interrogation like you do everyone else when you stop the elevator!" She whined.

"Abby," he sighed. "I was only going to say that you might want to prepare yourself for when you see them." He laughed.

"Have you told them that I'm visiting today?"

"No, so they'll probably knock you over."

She nodded brightly. "I just want to see them again." She chirped.

He sighed again and set the elevator back into motion again. It was only a couple of seconds before it beeped and the doors opened on their floor. Gibbs left first, just as he would any other day, while Abby stayed quiet inside the elevator for a few more seconds, taking deep breaths to prepare herself.

Then she went out onto the floor and rounded the corner so she could see Tony and McGee filling in some paperwork and the back of Ziva's head, with Gibbs sat at his desk like any normal day. She had to give him his due, he was a very good actor.

She walked slowly and quietly, being careful about not letting them see or hear her. It was Ziva that noticed first, slightly turning her head to make eye contact with her and smirking a little. She raised her fingers to her lips to remind Ziva to be quiet.

Tony and McGee didn't notice her until she stood directly in the centre of the bullpen and Ziva stood up and embraced her tight in her arms. "I missed you Abby." Ziva whispered in her ear.

At that point both Tony and Tim sprang to their feet, Tony getting to Abby fastest, Ziva just having the chance to move away before he pulled her into a tight hug. Smirking at her. "Your lab's been missing you." He said.

"I missed you so much Tony!" Abby squealed as she hugged him tighter, then Tony went back to his desk and McGee came over.

"Let's get down to your lab." Tim told her.

Abby squealed. "YAY!" The duo went down the elevator and to the lab. Abby went in first, running around calling out all the names of her various machines or 'babies' as she called them.

She ran a full circle round her lab until she got back to McGee who was now leaning against her desk. She ran straight into him, crashing her lips to his in a powerful kiss. "I missed this place McGee. I missed my lab, I missed Tony and Ziva, not most of all I missed you." She smirked and he grinned before they kissed again.

**Tell me what you all think!**


	23. Chapter 23

They were back for her. She was back in the cabin chained up, beaten bloody, her life draining away onto the floor. There was no McGee to save her, no way to escape her hell. The short one seemed to tower over her in her broken state and the boss was smirking evilly as he forced her chin up harshly so she would look at him as he got his lackey to carve patterns with his knife on her gut. She screamed for McGee but he wasn't going to find her, wasn't going to save her and without McGee there'd be no Gibbs or Tony or Ziva to save her…

She woke up.

Her breath was coming in sharp shallow gasps, but Tim was there, his arm gently round her shoulders, his hand rubbing circles onto her back. "You're fine Abbs. We've got you now, they are dead and they will never hurt you again." He soothed. She found her breathing coming in easier and he placed a delicate kiss on her temple. "I've got you and I'm not letting you go."

All it took were those words and she found herself instantly relaxing, curling herself into his form, feeling his warmth surrounding her. "I'm sorry Tim." She murmured.

"Why? Abby, you have nothing to be sorry for."

"I woke you up in the middle of the night and you have work tomorrow!"

"So do you Abby. It isn't your fault that you're scared and worried and you need more support. I will give you the support you need whether you want me to give it to you or not. Now get some rest. I'm right here." He whispered.

"I know you are, that's why I'm so frustrated." She murmured so quietly she wasn't sure he'd hear her.

"Do you not want me here Abby?" He asked, his voice filled with hurt.

"I just don't want to fall off the ledge and take you with me."

"Abby, when you take my hand I'm certain of who I am, I won't let you think that you're not strong, I won't let you think that you're not strong, that you can't handle this."

"But what if I can't? What if I'm not as strong as you think I am?"

"Oh Abby." He sighed and placed another kiss on her temple. "You can get through this. We can get through this."

She burrowed her head deeper into his shoulder and found herself slowly being reclaimed by sleep. "Thank you Tim." She whispered.

"I love you Abby."

She was already asleep, sleeping peacefully in his arms.

**reviews? xxx**


	24. Chapter 24

When Abby and Tim arrived in the bullpen the next morning neither looked like they had lost sleep, both of them back to looking like their normal selves, Abby's pigtails bouncing with every step she took. Ziva was already there waiting, but there was no sign of either Dinozzo or Gibbs.

Tim sat at his desk as he would any other day and started to sort through his unread emails and requests. Abby on the other hand went straight to Tony's desk, sat in his chair, spun around on it for a few rotations and then put her platform boot clad feet up on his desk.

She tipped her head back in the chair and the trio waited. It wasn't long until Gibbs came down from the director's office. He didn't even flinch when he saw Abby at Tony's desk instead of Tony. He sat at his desk and only then did he speak. "Where's Dinozzo?" He sighed.

"Here boss!" He shouted as the elevator binged and a very soaking wet Tony ran out of it and dumped his backpack on his desk, not really registering that Abby was in his chair. Gibbs stood up and all four of them watched him as he started to walk out of the bullpen towards the elevator.

"Dead marine at Norfolk." The three field agents sprang up. "Grab your gear."

As the four agents moved away from Abby and towards the elevator she stood up. "But Gibbs what about me?" She called after them.

"Stay with Palmer." Gibbs told her as they all disappeared into the elevator and she heard it ding.

She sighed and turned round, only to nearly jump out of her skin when she saw Palmer standing right behind her. "Palmer you scared me!" She squealed.

"Sorry Abby. Ducky told me to stay behind and keep you company today. You want to go down to your lab?" He asked.

"No, I'll hang out in autopsy with you until Ducky gets back." She smiled brightly. "Come on Jimmy."

He grinned and held his arm out to her. She took it, giggling. "You alright staying back from the crime scene just to keep me company?"

"Yeah, I mean I've seen enough dead people already, so what's the harm in missing seeing a few of them in the actual scene?" He shrugged.

When they got down into autopsy Jimmy sat filling in paperwork and Abby sat on another chair hugging her hippo and watching him. They sat in silence for about half an hour before she spoke up. "I woke McGee up last night. I had a nightmare."

"McGee loves you, I'm sure he didn't mind."

"I don't want to be a burden."

"You're not a burden, you just need extra support for a while."

"But all I'm doing is getting in the way. I can't handle being alone. I wake McGee up in the middle of the night. I keep you from going to a crime scene to do your job." She sniffled. "I just want this all to be over so I don't have to think about it."

"It will be over, you just need time to heal." Jimmy stood up from his paperwork and moved over to her. He gave her a hug. "Come on Abby. You can hug me better than that." He taunted. She smirked and hugged him tightly.

"Thank you Jimmy."

"Any time you need me Abby."

**Awhh Palmer! Thoughts?**


	25. Chapter 25

Ziva and Abby were having a night in together, it was their first girls night since Abby's incident and things were going alright. Abby was staying at Ziva's apartment and both of them were sat on her sofa in their pajamas, Ziva with her hair pulled to the side in a plait and Abby just with pigtails. They looked like a pair of teenage girls having a sleep over, sitting cross legged on the sofa telling secrets and watching movies.

They sat in silence for the majority of the film, until Abby finally spoke up. "You and Tony hmm?" She taunted.

"Me and Tony are just friends Abby. You know that." Ziva sighed like she had repeated it a thousand times and wasn't too fond of repeating it again. Her hand was messing with the plait she had tied before the movie started and Abby was wondering whether it was a distraction so that she didn't punch her instead.

"You certainly don't act like just friends!"

"Yes we do! We argue all the time! I'm pretty sure he can't stand me." Ziva laughed.

"Love can often be mistaken as hate." Abby cackled, raising a finger at her accusingly.

"It's Tony! I mean come on! How can I fall in love with Tony!"

"You two flirt like it's second nature, I think it's pretty impossible for you not to fall for him."

"Rule 12-"

"Ziva." Abby interrupted.

"You think I'm clutching at spoons?"

"Spoons? The expression is clutching at loose straws, or it actually might not be… I just know it isn't spoons!"

"Abby…" Ziva exhaled loudly.

"You like him! Admit it!"

Ziva opened her mouth, not sure of what she was actually going to say to her, but was cut off when the shrill ring of her phone emanated from the coffee table beside her. She sighed and reached over, grabbing it and bringing it to her ear.

She checked the caller I.D and couldn't suppress a chuckle. "Tony, I'm at Abby's place-" She began, but then all the humor was gone from her eyes as she listened to what he had to say. Abby watched curiously, but didn't say anything. "On our way. Twenty minutes." Ziva said, hanging up the phone and standing up.

"What was that about?" Abby asked.

"Gibbs wants us back in the office." She answered.

"What for? It's the weekend and we don't have a case!"

"We do now."

"What is it? There's something else isn't there?"

Ziva sighed. "Abby, please just get ready quickly."

"Not until you tell me what's going on!"

"I don't know, Ok? Something has happened and Gibbs wants us back in the office ASAP. I know nothing more." Ziva snapped, frustrated from all the questions. She took a deep breath before speaking again. "I'm sorry. That was harsh, but please Abby, just get ready, we need to leave quickly."

**Reviews?**


	26. Chapter 26

Fifteen minutes later the elevator dinged and Ziva and Abby marched out of it. Ziva's face was a mirror of stoicism as always, hers was almost better than Gibbs's. The entire team was waiting for them in the bullpen, even Ducky and Palmer.

"What is it Gibbs? What's happening?" Abby asked as she ran up and hugged him.

Gibbs said nothing, but motioned his hand to McGee. Tim instantly bent down and started pressing the keys of his computer in rapid succession. The rest of the team stood together in silence waiting for the big screen to light up, which a few seconds later it did.

The screen was illuminated with the image of a corpse. It was a man, wearing the bottom half of a marines uniform, which was probably why Gibbs had got the case at all. He didn't have a shirt on and they could see a lot of discolorations, either from exposure, bruising or decomp, Abby couldn't be sure which unless she knew the conditions in which he was found.

He was lying flat on his back, on a dark, gravelly looking surface. Most likely it was a road, again she couldn't be sure unless she saw wider camera angles. His eyes were open, but they were glazed over. She wished whoever took the photo had closed his eyes for him before taking it.

His stomach, which turned out to be lined with muscles, wasn't as discolored, probably part of the plan as there on his stomach, there were no bruises, but instead a message carved into the flesh. There wasn't much blood around the wounds, so it had probably been put there at least half an hour after death.

Before she picked up the courage to actually read the message, Abby had to take a deep breath and cast a quick glance at Timmy, who was watching her intently and nearly didn't notice her looking his way. As soon as he did, he turned away. She had to read what the message said.

Turning back to the screen to the writing on the marine's stomach, she couldn't help but notice that it was written very neatly, not like someone who had killed a man and quickly scrawled a message into his stomach, instead each letter looked as though considerable time had been spent carving it.

She then allowed her mind to combine the letters into words and it took her less than five seconds to read it and then run to Tim, wrapping her arms around his chest in a huge hug, which he gladly returned and rubbed soothing circles on her back. "It's all going to be ok." Was all he kept repeating in her ear.

Eventually they broke apart and she turned to look at the rest of the bullpen. Ziva and Tony were leaning against Ziva's desk, their fingertips touching on the table, both looked stoic, put Abby knew them too well, the little hints of worry and stress and some exhaustion, could easily be seen in their eyes, or the way neither of them were talking, or pulling away from the others slight contact.

Ducky was sat in Gibbs's chair, shaking his head in despair, with Jimmy standing just behind him, looking like he was going to throw up. Gibbs was standing just a little way away from Palmer and Ducky and in his posture and facial expressions you could see no worry for himself, just for his team.

Abby swallowed a little vomit that had risen in her throat and allowed herself to think through the information that she'd just seen. A message, carved into a dead marines body. A message threatening their team. A message that must be somehow connected to their most recent ordeal. It was going to be a long few days.

_Team Gibbs, I see my example has healed up nicely. Don't worry, someone else will be in my care soon, or maybe more than one? Don't worry Gibbs, the only one I intend to leave alive is you._

**When do I ever leave you without a torturous cliffhanger?**


	27. Chapter 27

The whole team stood frozen in complete, stunned silence for at least a solid two minutes, it was Gibbs that spoke first. "I want none of you going anywhere alone. Ever. Definitely no going to anywhere that's quiet. Preferably no leaving this yard until this guy's caught."

Everyone groaned, but nobody refused.

"We've just got through one crisis. How come our team always gets the death threats?" Tony asked nobody in particular. He braced himself for a slap to the head, but it never came. "Boss?"

Gibbs didn't respond.

"Hey look McGee-"

Slap.

"Yes boss. Off topic boss."

"Ducky, have those bodies arrived in autopsy?" Gibbs asked.

Ducky nodded. "Come along mister Palmer. I'm afraid we need to get these autopsies done post haste."

Palmer stifled a yawn, nodded and sprang himself back to life. "Yes doctor."

"No, duck. Both of you are exhausted, everyone is exhausted because we pulled you in from out of office. Ziva, Tony grab the blankets from under your desks. McGee, Abbs, the lab." Gibbs ordered.

Nobody was feeling suicidal enough to suggest anything else.

Ducky rose from the chair. "Come mister Palmer, I believe I have some blankets and pillows in the supply cupboard down in autopsy."

"You keep blankets in the supply cupboard?" Jimmy asked incredulously.

"You've been here long enough mister Palmer. Surely you must know that there is always something going on that could result in us having to stay in the yard for a few nights."

"Oh yes, of course doctor." He agreed quickly.

Abby and McGee had long since disappeared and headed down to the lab, leaving only Ziva, Tony and Gibbs in the bullpen. "Ziver, just copy this before you settle down." Gibbs told her, handing her a few pages of the file.

She nodded and crossed the bullpen to the copy machine. After a few minutes it groaned and so did she. "Die you stupid machine!" She hissed as she kicked it, trying to make it work again.

"Does she always do that?"

"Those are standard Mossad-style copy machine assault tactics Gibbs." Tony told him.

Gibbs chuckled without making much sound. "At least one of us can hold out normal behavior."

"Boss, how much… How bad do you think this is going to get before everything goes back to just your usual cut and dry dead marine cases?"

"When has anything ever been normal around here Dinozzo? How many times have one or all of us been threatened?"

"That's too good of a point boss." He sighed.

**Who can tell me what episode I took a quote from? Send me your answer in reviews and I'll tell you the right answer next chapter! xxx**


	28. Chapter 28

**Recoil from 2008! Big shoutout to KrisShannon who got it right! One of the best Ziva episodes of NCIS! Xxx**

Early the next morning Ziva woke up. She was sleeping pretty much underneath her desk, covered in one of the spare blankets. Slowly she stood up, glancing at the clock on her desk. Five thirty a.m. That meant she had had around six hours sleep.

Sighing she scooped up her bag and left the bullpen, checking on Tony as she went. He was sleeping soundly. Gibbs was nowhere in sight, but then again she already knew he slept less than she did. Knowing him he probably left when they were asleep to go sand the boat in his basement.

In the bathroom it didn't take her too long to get ready for a new day. Shoving her slept in clothes into her bag, she pulled on some clean jeans and her red jumper. She ran a brush through her hair, before leaving it to fall around her shoulders. She applied minimalistic makeup and then headed back to the bullpen.

She sat down at her desk, tucking her bag and blanket under it as she pulled out a book from the locked drawer in her desk. It wasn't too long until Gibbs came in and he handed her a cup of coffee. She looked at him skeptically, noting that he too had a coffee cup in his hand.

"Call it a reward for being up early Ziver." He said as he headed towards the elevator. She sat frozen for a second watching him go. "You coming?" He called back. She sprang up from her desk, grabbing the coffee cup as she went and chuckling as she heard snoring coming from underneath Tony's desk.

"Where are we going Gibbs?" She asked as the elevator doors closed behind her.

"To wake up Ducky."

She nodded.

The doors were about to open when Gibbs practically punched the stop button. She looked at him, confused, but not saying anything. "Are you worried Ziva?" He asked.

Her eyebrows furrowed slightly. "We've faced worse. Now we just know what's coming for us."

"Ziva, I can't have you being like that. Don't do that thing where you don't say how you're feeling. We are all a target in this. Everyone but me. I need to know that you know just how serious this could, and most likely will end up being."

"You think I'm not worried Gibbs?" She asked, her voice quiet, a sign of anger. "You think I don't know how serious this is? You think I don't know that the chances are that one or more of us will be seriously hurt?"

He opened his mouth to try and calm her down, but she held up her hand to silence him.

"I realize that you are most likely unnaturally worried because Abby has already been targeted so it is unlikely for her to be targeted again and you think that because I am the only other female on the team I am the one most likely to be targeted when they strike again, but you must know by now that I can take care of myself!"

"I know that Ziver. But I also know you. Everything you've been through and I need to know that you are alright. That you know everyone is going through this together."

She nodded wordlessly. Painfully aware that nowhere was safe for the NCIS team any more.

**What did everyone think? I should be getting back to the action soon! xxx**


	29. Chapter 29

Tobias Fornell showed up in the bullpen at about seven a.m. the following morning. Naturally Gibbs and Ziva were already milling around the office doing things of general disinterest, like paperwork or sending messages around the building and Tony was still sound asleep, snoring like a drunken sailor under his desk.

When Fornell came in Ziva smirked and raised a finger to her lips, gesturing to the heavily snoring Dinozzo. He smirked back and went even closer to Tony's desk, until he was standing almost directly in front of it.

"DINUTZO!" He shouted, causing Tony to suddenly propel to life, with such speed that when his head hit the underneath of his desk the impact was so loud and strong that the phone and all the paperwork bounced at least an inch in the air.

He groaned in pain, lying back down on the floor in an attempt to stop the office spinning. "What was that for?" He moaned. Slowly he pulled himself up into a sitting position before finally he ended up standing.

"Why are you here Tobias?" Gibbs barked.

Fornell sighed, meeting Gibbs' stare before the pair of them turned round and went to the elevator, leaving Tony and Ziva standing in their wake. "What do you think Fornell wants?" Ziva asked.

"No idea, the room is still spinning." He answered slowly.

Seeing her partner subconsciously swaying on his feet, Ziva reached out and wrapped her hand round his shoulders. "Sit down Tony. You look like you're about to drop like a rock."

"Drop like a stone, Zee." He corrected, but he didn't refuse. He let her guide him into the chair. She pulled her chair from behind her own desk so that she could sit opposite him so that their knees were touching.

"Did Fornell wake you up?" She taunted.

"No, I think it was the impact between my head and the solid wood desk that woke me up from my beauty sleep."

"And everyone knows you need it." She laughed.

He feigned a pout. "That hurts Zee. Really hurts."

She stood up, a small smile on her lips. She crouched down in front of him and pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead. The look on his face was so shocked that she thought his eyes were about to drop out of his head. "Does that make it better?" She whispered in his ear as she stood up again.

It was a few minutes after that that Gibbs and Fornell came out of the elevator and marched over to them. The look on Gibbs's face was enough to tell them that something was wrong. "What is it Gibbs?" Ziva asked, glancing between the pair of agents.

"MTAC. Now." Was all he told them. The duo set out to head up there, before Gibbs put a hand on Ziva's shoulder. "Go get McGee, Abby and Ducky and Palmer."

When the whole of the team were in MTAC, Fornell stood in front of the big screen. "Gibbs has signed on this mission for me to help you catch the idiot that's decided to target all of you." Everyone nodded in understanding so far. "It took a little of convincing, but I want McGee and Dinutzo with Gibbs in here, running the op from HQ. I want Scuito, Palmer and Ducky ready and waiting." He explained, pausing for a moment to let his explanation sink in.

"But what about Ziva?" Tony asked him, even though the rest of the room already had a sinking feeling what he was going to say.

"David will be in the field. Hopefully catching the eye of your stalker."

**Oh. Can you see this ending well for our favourite team? xxx**


	30. Chapter 30

Tony felt trapped in MTAC. He was watching what Ziva was seeing on the big screen. He was aware that all the microphones all around the room were the only line of their communication with her. For the moment he had nothing to do. Gibbs was down talking to Ducky or Abby, one of the two, and McGee was perfectly happy on the computers checking every camera angle in the area.

And he was banned from setting one foot outside of MTAC. He was sitting in his chair, his foot tapping of its own accord. He didn't even realize it was happening until Gibbs slapped him upside the head. "Stop tapping your foot Dinozzo." He snapped.

"Yes Boss. I've just got nothing to do boss."

"That will all change in time. The stalker won't be able to resist taking a shot at Ziver."

"Boss!" McGee called.

"What do you got McGee?"

"There's a group of men following Ziva. They 've been following her for the past four blocks."

"You got on them? Anything that could indicate that they aren't just attracted to her?" Gibbs asked.

"They're all related boss. Two sets of brothers, Lewis and Charles Cole and their cousins Tom and Jerry Charles. All ex service men. All dishonorably discharged and all for frequent substance abuse."

"Their names sound familiar McGee. Why?" Tony asked.

"About eight or nine years ago, before I came into the team there was a massive drug bust on a navy ship that was docked in the D.C port. Six servicemen were busted, two of which were arrested and the other four were just discharged and the agent in charge of the investigation was…"

"Me." Gibbs sighed.

"And I'd just started as a probie for that case. It was the first case that I actually played a significant part in the bust. Weren't people on that ship starting to die all the time and they called us in and we found out that six of the servicemen were using drugs, but only two of them were actually slipping the bad stock into the chefs cooking."

"Exactly." McGee confirmed.

"And now they're out for revenge because we got them dishonourably discharged?" Tony asked incredulously.

"Seems that way. What I don't understand is why they waited nearly a decade to make their move?" McGee asked nobody in particular.

"Maybe because they found another pair of idiots to work with them who were stupid enough to go after Abby and not know that they weren't coming out of it alive. Maybe they need all four of them for the final show that they have planned." Tony suggested.

"Three of them have disappeared from the security footage. I think they're going to try and surround Ziva." McGee told them.

Tony and Gibbs both turned to the big screen. "Damn it. We can't have her go to the rendezvous point in the parking garage. That's too isolated and with the four of them all after her they're probably all heavily armed and won't hesitate killing any agents that get in their way."

"What are we going to do boss?" Tony asked, wishing to be out in the field beside his partner.

"We'll work something out Dinozzo."

**Nothing is ever simple! Reviews? xxx**


	31. Chapter 31

"Ziva! Ziva can you hear me?" Tony asked, almost screaming through the microphone.

"Stop screaming in my ear Tony." She muttered, her voice echoing through the whole of MTAC.

"Zee, we've got four guys tailing you. We can't see three of them but one of them is on your six, twenty, maybe thirty meters back just over your left shoulder. Zee, don't try and get to the parking garage that's too secluded. They are most likely heavily armed and they definitely have close combat training. They're dishonorably discharged marines. You know the drill." He explained rapidly.

"Yes Tony. I know the drill."

"Agent David." Fornell interrupted. "Disconnect this communication line and go dark."

She didn't disconnect it right away, trying to give Gibbs or Tony or even McGee chance to tell her that it wasn't a good idea, she could hear them shouting through her earpiece at Fornell, but he only raised his voice.

"Damn it! David! Disconnect the line and go dark now!" They were shouting too loud in the earpiece. People walking close to her would be able to hear them. After taking a deep breath, praying that Gibbs and Tony would forgive her later, she disconnected the earpiece. She could almost hear the whole team cursing her.

She didn't speed up, but she didn't slow down, trying to work out just where she should aim for. Anywhere off of main streets the men tailing her could most likely easily corner her, but anywhere on the main streets she could be monitored by a myriad of security cameras from all angles.

A big choice was what faced her and whichever one she made may just cost her the ultimate price.

"Disconnect this communication line and go dark."

Gibbs, Tony and McGee instantly converged on Fornell, shouting curses and orders for him to retract the order. They could still hear her on the other end of the link, but she wasn't saying anything. Tony knew why his partner was doing that. She was waiting for him to tell her to stay on the line and direct her away from the four men tailing her. He had to get to her, had to help her.

But Fornell only raised his voice above them. "Damn it! David! Disconnect this line and go dark now!" He knew that the sheer volume of that command would draw the surrounding people's attention to Ziva, he heard her sigh and suck in a deep breath before he heard the sound that would haunt his nightmares for weeks to come.

The communication link disconnected.

He didn't try and say anything more to Fornell, instead Tony moved over to the big screen, knowing that McGee was right beside him and watched her on the security footage. She was trying to work out a path to a safe place whilst not stopping moving.

"McGee. Run facial rec on the four guys tailing her. Tell me where they are." He said in a surprisingly calm voice. McGee did as he was told.

"Tony, there's one in front, one behind and one running on the back streets on either side of her. They're enclosing her and she probably doesn't even realize it."

"Damn it. Boss, you've got to let me out there. You need to let me help my partner."

"You'll do nothing of the sort Dinutzo. This is my operation and you will do nothing to endanger its success." Fornell snapped.

"There's no way you can leave her out there! She has no back up, no communication link and nowhere to go! She's being tailed by four ex-service men for God's sake. We need to help her!"

"Agent Dinozzo. You are not leaving this room." Fornell growled, before he turned to face Gibbs, "Gibbs, go help David. Take one of these idiots with you and don't forget the comms."

Tony turned to Gibbs hopefully, but his boss wouldn't meet his eyes.

"McGee." Was what Gibbs said as he headed towards the doors of MTAC.

"On your six boss." McGee sent an apologetic look towards Tony, who nodded in acceptance. Once both of them were out of the room Tony growled in frustration, kicking the chairs that were near him and then turning back to the security footage.

All he could do was watch what went down.

**What do you guys all think? xxx**


	32. Chapter 32

She had to keep calm. She couldn't do this, couldn't allow herself to lose it, to bottle her resolve and turn her comm back on. She was a trained assassin! She shouldn't be so worried about four men chasing her, yet there she was hands shaking, an uncontrollable urge to turn around and a desire to just break out into a run and run for cover.

Tony. Tony. She had to be alright or Tony would never ever forgive himself, he would never be able to move on from it if anything did happen to her. She knew somebody was watching her on the security feed, she hoped it was Tony and she bobbed her head slightly, knowing he would understand that it was her aim to comfort him.

Then she made her choice and ducked off of the main street and into an alley. It was hard to keep her pace down since she was off the open street and in a quieter area. She was grateful that at least Fornell hadn't made her dress up in a dress and heels like she had to for most jobs like this, but then again she didn't have any backup either.

Boots, with smaller, more wedge like heels were a lot easier to be quiet in and jeans and a dark colored jumper were easier to run in. Gibbs would have to be coming to help her by, he wouldn't leave her to fend for herself against four fully trained guys, even if he had full confidence in her, even though he thought of her like a breathing weapon.

She had just started to let herself relax and fall into the usual step of being constantly on the move and in the shadows when she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. Grunting in pain, she fell forward onto her hands and knees before she sprang up just as quickly.

Head spinning she sprang back to her feet. She was surrounded, they must have got past her somehow, but she had no idea how. She struck out at the one closest to her with a sharp hit to the nose. The crunch of the bones breaking under her palm was strangely soothing.

To the guys' credit, the move did very little to dissuade him from his goal. He took one more stride towards her and swung his fist towards her face, she knew the move was coming and ducked quickly to avoid the move and instead struck her foot out at his shin.

She heard his fist impact the wall where her head had been and again heard the crunch of bones breaking and then the blow to the shin was enough to knock the injured man down so that he fell, unconscious.

The other three quickly converged on her, the fastest of the three able to get a fist full of her hair and pull her back to her feet, slamming her back into the wall with painful force. He quickly stomped on both of her feet so she couldn't kick him and the other two came over and grabbed her wrists.

In that position she realized just why she was losing. She had no backup at all and there had been four of them. She had been fighting as though Tony or McGee were in the fight with her, helping her to take them down. But they weren't there.

The guy actually pinning her to the wall leaned in closer, a smirk on his face, clearly feeling smug about his win, so she did the only thing she could actually manage and head-butted him. He cursed and stumbled backwards, but his momentary shock was just enough for her. She used one of her seriously painful feet to kick the guy holding one of her wrists, in the groin and as soon as he let go she swung her fist around and punched the other guy straight in the jaw.

By the time that happened and she was completely free the first one was back on his feet again and he swung his fist at her face. Her reaction was quick, but slowed by her multiple head traumas and she felt the sharp pain in the top of her head and then she fell, unconscious.

**So, Ziva couldn't take down all four guys, but she made a pretty good attempt of it! What did you guys think? xxx**


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